


Of Kittens and Soulmates

by GreyPezzola



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Platonic Relationships, mentions of self harm, spoilers for the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-11
Updated: 2013-08-11
Packaged: 2017-12-23 04:31:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/922013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyPezzola/pseuds/GreyPezzola
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is said that the bond between Jaeger pilots is more scared than marriage, more intimate than sex, and more loving than soulmates. There is also a joke saying that Jaeger pilots become bonded kittens, the way they fight and eat and sleep together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Kittens and Soulmates

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: Brief mention of self harm! Please don't read if you find that kind of thing triggering.

It is said that the bond between Jaeger pilots is more scared than marriage, more intimate than sex, and more loving than soulmates. There is also a joke saying that Jaeger pilots become bonded kittens, the way they fight and eat and sleep together.

He didn't know if he and his brother had been kittens, but certainly they had done practically everything together. He hadn't been exaggerating when he had said that it was hard to get used to the silence after spending so much time in the drift together. You spend enough time in someone else's head that when there is suddenly no one there, the loneliness and emptiness of one set of thoughts is consuming.

The drift effects everyone differently, but the end results are always the same. He learns from Mako in the drift that Sasha and Aleksis could communicate with each other when they were doing their own tasks. That they were so attuned to each other that they walked in step even when far apart and if one of the two were to get upset, the other was by their side in minutes. The triplets appeared to be telepathic with their connection; they rarely talked to anyone including each other, but they still knew what the others were feeling. The triplets were a cohesive unit and could not be separated. Hercules and Chuck had been practical enemies, their relationship ruined by some event neither would talk about before the became co-pilots. After a tense month, they adopted their dog and became close again. He remembers with his brother how they had went from being good enough friends to being on the verge of being co-dependent and suffering what could only be called separation anxiety when they were apart for longer than four hours.

The silence after his brother had died was almost too much to bare; drifting with Mako had give him the dialogue he had so sorely missed. She had seen his two set of memories; one of loss and one of death. He had seen the destruction she had faced. Then he had seen her first kiss and she had seen his first love. By the time they had resurfaced from destroying an alien portal, they had synced with each other and knew they couldn't let go.

So they don't.

As they are rescued from the ocean and then as they return to base, they stay in contact; hands around wrists, cheeks touching, and lips against falling tears. They take off their suits and join the celebrations, sitting together in the mess hall as people are coming up to congratulate them. Her head is on his shoulder and his hand is on her knee as they politely accept the congratulations and eat the chocolate cake someone has manage to whip up. When she falls asleep against him, it is only natural for him to carry her to her room and slip off her shoes and belt before putting her in her bed. It does not feel right to leave her though, so he doesn't. He pulls of his shirt and lies down on the small bed next to her and lets her even breathing lull him into sleep.

Even though is should be, it's not awkward when they wake up with her nose buried in his neck and his hand up her shirt and resting on her stomach. He shrugs at her when she blinks at him, replying to her unasked question that it isn't awkward for him either. They end up showering together, reveling in the contact of bare skin. She traces his scars and he washes her hair with her special shampoo to help maintain her streaks. He knows she dyed the streaks blue in an attempt to be insubordinate to her father figure, but he had ended up liking the streaks, thus making it a failure in defiance and a triumph in approval. She knows that a handful of his scars were self inflicted from the dark time after his brother died. She kisses his collarbone and he holds her close under the water as he feels the beginning of her mourning of a man who was her father.

It doesn't take much for him to move into her quarters. They are more at ease with each other near by, she's still mourning her loss and he's a little bit more than a bit broken. People give them knowing looks when ever they brush up against each other during casual interactions, as if they are privy to what happens behind closed doors. Only Hercules, who looks sunken in and empty without his son, actually knows what they are feeling.

"I would suggest getting married." He tells them privately in their quarters. "They are going to shut down all of this soon and we will all be shipped out to where we came from. If you are married, they will not be able to legally separate you. It will make things like visas and housing easier, trust me."

"But we're not-"

"I know." Hercules says, putting up a hand to silence the protest. "Before I was a Jaeger pilot, I was married to the love of my life. Together we had a daughter and a son and we were happy. I loved that woman like no other. But when I became a Jaeger pilot, I was so intrinsically close to my co-pilot that I divorced her because while I loved Marcy, I could not be without Theo. My daughter never forgave me and Chuck only understood once he drifted with me. You two will not be getting married because you are madly in love. I am saying, get married because you don't have the advantage of being related and marriage is all the insurance two can get."

Later, as they are entwined in bed as usual, she runs a hand down his arm to touch his pinky. He closes his pinky around hers in response. The marriage of two world wide heroes should have been a grand event and major news companies are outraged to report that the service was only attended by six people and a dog and that it happened in the personal quarters of Hercules. According to the news chanel they are currently watching, the fact that there is no picture of their first kiss as Mr. & Mrs. Mori is a travesty.

"Should we appease the masses?" He asks her as she shuts off the news. Her unimpressed look is enough to make him laugh to the point of tears.

Of course, as the only two Jaeger pilots who survived shutting down the portal, they are celebrities and eventually someone snaps a picture of Mako kissing his cheek. They hold hands whilst being interviewed on TV shows because it's easier for them to deal with the questions about the Triple Event that way. The hand holding also helps when interviewers ask him about why he took her name because he can lift her hand and kiss it before explaining he shared Beckett with Yancy and now he wanted to share Mori with Mako. This leaves the media with enough cannon fodder to make the two look like star-crossed lovers which keeps awkward and inappropriate questions at bay.

Their reality, however, is different. They do love each other, that much is certain, but there is no romance in their bond. She knows he is actually deathly afraid of lizards; he knows her cravings; and neither of them judge. Despite their different cultures, he knows how to make her tea to the point of perfection and she knows that he doesn't need caffeine to be awake in the morning.

They love each other, but they aren't in love, they just happen to be each others centers of gravity. Their bond is more sacred then the rings on their fingers and the shared name of Mori. It is more intimate than any partner they have had even though they will never make love. They don't complete each other in the way soulmates supposedly do, but their connection runs deeper than that, but as she snuggles up closer to his back in their shared home, he thinks maybe the dumb joke about kittens isn't too far off.

**Author's Note:**

> Posted for Jaegercon 2013!


End file.
